Shooters who are willing
to do a little audio mixing can
also supplement their spatial
audio capture with spot mics
such as a lavalier on the officiant
at a ceremony or a speaker at
a reception. “What that allows
you to do is capture the overall
environmental sound but be
able to emphasize certain
sounds,” Glasscock explains.

“The [VR] microphone can be
thought of as a kind of ambience
or an environmental capture
microphone. It gives you an
ambisonic bed, or a 3D bed,
on which to make your final
mix.” Ambisonics is a system
for capturing and reproducing
spherical surround sound, instead
of simply the right and left sound
placement of a stereo system or
the horizontally placed additional
channels in a 2D surround sound
system. The most popular current
VR video platforms, including
You Tube and Facebook, support
ambisonic formats for sound.

WORKING IN POST

Whether you opt to incorporate
audio from spot mics or not,
producing spatial audio requires
some post-production work
that mono and stereo sound
mixing does not. Tetrahedral
mics output sound in the
ambisonic A-format, while
VR distribution platforms like
You Tube, Facebook and various
VR headsets support spatial
audio in the ambisonic B-format.

Tetrahedral microphone makersprovide plug-ins to convertfrom ambisonic A to B, andthird-party software is availableto convert audio from the Vuzecamera. However, there are afew additional steps betweenconverting your sound to theright flavor of ambisonics anduploading it to your favoriteplatform. In addition to mixingin any sound captured by spotmics, you have to combine thefinished ambisonic B audio mixwith your VR video file, a processcalled “muxing.”While audio mixing canbecome a complicated processfor someone working withmultiple microphone recordingsin a professional sound-editingprogram, it can also be donesimply and fairly quickly,especially if you’re working withonly the output from a tetrahedralmic or a camera like the Vuze.Mixing a 3D audio “bed” withthe sound from a lavalier micthat was placed on a weddingceremony officiant can be donewith relatively simple tools. “Forsomeone who’s just getting into itand wants to spatialize or mix in acouple mono sources,” Glasscocksays, “there are a few free plug-in suites available for standarddigital audio workstations andeven for editing in a videoeditor like Premiere.” MatthiasKronlachner’s ambiX plug-in suiteand Trond Lossius’ AmbisonicToolkit are among the mostpopular tools for working withspatial audio.

Once your sound has been
mixed and muxed with your
video in a video editor, the
output has to be prepared
for the specific platform on
which you want to distribute it.

Because each platform
that supports audio in
the ambisonic B-format
renders the audio a little
differently, there may be
slight differences in the
way sound comes out on
different platforms. However,
the spatialized effect will be
intact on all of them, and you can
use your spatial audio plug-in
to preview playback for specific
platforms and optimize sound for
a particular one.

ALL IN?

As new tools for capturing
immersive audio come to market,
new questions about how—and
whether—to use them will arise
as well. For filmmakers capturing
VR video at events like weddings,
one of the main questions will
be how much of everything
everyone really wants to hear. As
Humaneyes sales director Jeff
Miller points out about the Vuze
camera, “if you set it down at
the family table, you’ll be able to
hear everything.” When placing
a VR camera with spatial audio
capture, wedding shooters will
need to consider not only how
guests nearby might feel about
having their every sniffle and
snipe recorded, but also how the
captured sound will contribute to
the final video. Hearing everyone
in the scene creates a realistic
ambiance, but it can also clutter
the footage with random chatter.

“Who would want that?” asksMiller. “It’s just not interesting.”But others see an opportunityfor event filmmakers to crafta rich experience for theirclients that was previouslyunavailable. “If you place theviewer in a wedding scene andyou don’t hear Grandma orthe aunt behind you coughingor laughing or crying, I thinkthat removes you from theexperience,” Glasscock notes.“I think audio is extremelyimportant to have spatialized.It’s about 50 percent or more ofthe experience in 360-degreevideo. It gives the viewer a trulyimmersive experience from theaudio perspective that theywould have if they were actuallythere.”

Aimee Baldridge is a New York-based writer who covers the
art, technology and business of
photography and filmmaking.;;

If your viewerswill be able tosee everything inthe scene, whatshould they beable to hear? Thesimplest answer:everything.

ABOVE: Where most cameras have
one or two mics, the Vuze VR
camera has four. The net result is a
much richer audio recording.